Formula One 2012

[Troy]

Formula One 2012 Season

Red Bull Racing Renault
1 Sebastian Vettel (DEU)
2 Mark Webber (AUS)

McLaren Mercedes
3 Jenson Button (GBR)
4 Lewis Hamilton (GBR)

Ferrari
5 Fernando Alonso (ESP)
6 Felipe Massa (BRA)

Mercedes
7 Michael Schumacher (DEU)
8 Nico Rosberg (DEU)

Lotus Renault
9 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)
10 Romain Grosjean (FRA)

Force India Mercedes
11 Paul di Resta (GBR)
12 Nico Hulkenberg (DEU)

Sauber Ferrari
14 Kamui Kobayashi (JPN)
15 Sergio Perez Mendoza (MEX)

STR Ferrari
16 Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)
17 Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA)

Williams Renault
18 Pastor Maldonado (VEN)
19 Bruno Senna (BZL)

Caterham Renault
20 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)
21 Jarno Trulli (ITA)

HRT
22 Pedro de la Rosa (ESP)
23 Narain Karthikeyan (IND)

Marussia Cosworth
24 Timo Glock (DEU)
25 Charles Pic (FRA)

​

With the first race less than a month away I thought that it was time to post the F1 thread for this season. Three teams have changed names in 2012: Lotus has become Caterham, Renault has become Lotus, and Virgin has become Marussia. There have been a lot of driver changes throughout the year, too many to list but the big news would be that Kimi Raikkonen is back in F1 and will be racing for Lotus.

As an Australian I will again be cheering on Mark Webber and I am very happy that Daniel Ricciardo will be racing for Torro Rosso as he will be able to race for points every race rather than racing not to finish last.

Who will you be supporting this year?

 

[AZUCAR!]

Yes, glad this is up.

I'm a big Fernando Alonso mark and have been since his Renault days, so i'm a big Ferrari mark. I hope they can do better this season and compete with McLaren and Red Bull, unlike last season when they struggled and only managed to get 1 win and that was at Silverstone. Testing is still going on in Barcelona before everyone goes to Melbourne for the start of the season. Hispania (HRT) are currently the only team that haven't tested their new car during the winter testing period and there's doubt about whether they'll be able to get at least 1 days worth of testing before testing finishes in Barcelona.

This year will be the first time also i'll be watching it on Sky Sports, as the BBC are only showing 10 of the 20 races live and the remaining 10 are going to be highlights. I'm looking forward to Sky Sports' coverage, especially since they're going to be debuting a new channel devoted to Formula 1 on March 9th. Plus, they've also got every race live and the F1 channel is something i'm really looking forward to watching.

A few more things, I was surprised when Torro Rosso announced that Buemi and Alguersuari weren't returning, especially since they did a fine job last season. But Red Bull has a lot of faith in Ricciardo and Vergne to be the drivers for their sister team. Hulkenburg replacing Sutil at Force India wasn't a shock as most people towards the end of last season expected the change to happen. Felipe Massa needs a good year this year also to prove to Ferrari they should keep him on for next season, especially seeing as this year is the final year of his contract. And i've read rumors about Lewis Hamilton either going there or to Mercedes (should Michael Schumacher retire again) should Jenson Button have another great season with McLaren like he did last season.

So yeah, i'm counting down the days until Melbourne.

 

[Troy]

Finally someone responds, good to have someone to talk to about F1 this season.

In Australia we normally get the BBC coverage but I think we get the Sky Sports feed this year so that we get all the races live. Just as long as the Australian commentators don't commentate it then I will be happy because the people that host the pre-show stuff here are terrible.

With Torro Rosso I think it came down to the drivers from last season hadn't improved as much as they hoped and they didn't look like potential replacements for Webber when he eventually retires. Good to see two young talented drivers getting the spots and I like that there will be some healthy competition between the two drivers because they know the prize in the end is a drive with Red Bull. Buemi is still the reserve driver for Red Bull and Torro Rosso and Jamie Alguersuari is only 21 and will surely get a drive next year with a team. I think that Schumacher should retire at the end of this season, he hasn't been able to do what he used to do at Mercedes and there is no point in him continuing.

Really pumped for this season and it is only three weeks away now.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Are the Aussie commentators that bad then?

Last year we had Martin Brundle & David Coulthard. Because DC stayed with the BBC and Brundle went to Sky, it's going to be David Croft (who has normally commentated on practice sessions, Qualifying & Races for BBC Radio 5 Live) and Brundle. Another thing i'm pleased about, is there's going to be no adverts during the races. Brundle will still be able to do his grid walk before the races like he always does. Which he says was one of the main reasons he left BBC. The only thing that I will miss at the moment is the F1 Forum (where the presenter & analysts would review the race etc). I never watched it when it debuted 2 years ago but gave it a chance last year and enjoyed it. Hopefully Sky Sports will do something similar.

 

[Doink]

Really looking forward to this season. I'm a big fan of Paul Di Resta so I like Force India however I think that replacing Sutil was a huge mistake. I'm in the UK too so I also like Button, hoping he can capture the title from Vettel. I was also a big Raikkonen mark back when he was at Ferrari so I'm delighted to see him return and I hope he goes to Ferrari next year to replace Massa and then Schumacher swap for Alonso Looking forward to resuming our discussion from last year with hopefully a few more.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Vettel is the current F1 World Champ, not Mark Webber

Force India got a good result last year in finishing where they did in the Constructor's Championship. They've said their aim this year is to get ahead of Lotus, so whether that is possible, time will tell.

 

[Doink]

Vettel is the current F1 World Champ, not Mark Webber

Force India got a good result last year in finishing where they did in the Constructor's Championship. They've said their aim this year is to get ahead of Lotus, so whether that is possible, time will tell.

I don't know why I put Webber lol, probably reading Troys post.

 

[Clydefrog]

got a strange feeling that vettel will win again this year, he is one talented driver! im just mostly intrigued by the monaco grand prix that one is the best of the season

 

[AZUCAR!]

Yeah, Monaco is a special Grand Prix and one of my favorites too.

 

[Clydefrog]

last years was my fave grind prix followed by silerstone, im more of a fan of F1 when it isn't like a one horse race

 

[AZUCAR!]

That's why hopefully this year will be different.

McLaren started off slow last year but their pace built up. Most people thought Canada would be a turning point for McLaren when Vettel made that mistake on the last lap and allowed Jenson to win and it was in a way, but Vettel in the end deserved to be the F1 World Champ again.

Ferrari were just poor all season and were lucky to get the win at Silverstone and to finish where they did with Alonso in most races.

 

[Clydefrog]

See i like alonso i think he's a good driver, i hope this year its tight all the way to the last grand prix than i would watch every race imo

 

[Troy]

Are the Aussie commentators that bad then?

Last year we had Martin Brundle & David Coulthard. Because DC stayed with the BBC and Brundle went to Sky, it's going to be David Croft (who has normally commentated on practice sessions, Qualifying & Races for BBC Radio 5 Live) and Brundle. Another thing i'm pleased about, is there's going to be no adverts during the races. Brundle will still be able to do his grid walk before the races like he always does. Which he says was one of the main reasons he left BBC. The only thing that I will miss at the moment is the F1 Forum (where the presenter & analysts would review the race etc). I never watched it when it debuted 2 years ago but gave it a chance last year and enjoyed it. Hopefully Sky Sports will do something similar.

The commentators are one guy that test drove a F1 car for one season, one guy who is a MotoGP (motorbike) rider and the other is simply a television host. They don't have the technical knowledge or experience and they don't do enough research for their role.

We normally have the BBC commentary and I really liked it, except when Eddie Jordan would go crazy for no reason.

got a strange feeling that vettel will win again this year, he is one talented driver! im just mostly intrigued by the monaco grand prix that one is the best of the season

One of my goals in life is to attend the Monaco F1 GP, it would be an incredible experience.

 

[AZUCAR!]

Gotta love EJ.

 

[Clydefrog]

Should get a vbookie event up for the next season!